My Baby is Three!

I can't believe Mikey is three. On April 17th (and 18th) we celebrated Mikey's third birthday. Lance was in the middle of finals and Saturday (the 18th) was going to be a warmer day so on his actual birthday it was mostly just Mikey, Luke and me. Since blowing out candles is one of his favorite parts, he got to blow them out at every meal.

Lance had to stop studying long enough to eat, of course, so we all went to dinner (because Mikey asks to "eat at the restaurant" for every meal--should I be offended?) Then we had a few cupcakes since the big cake was coming the next day for his party.

I gave Mikey a few choices for his cake. He narrowed it down to a Fish cake or a Safari cake and went back and forth every 30 seconds. Once he decided on the safari cake (for longer than a few minutes) I had to hide all pictures and evidence of any thoughts of a fish cake so he wouldn't change his mind again!

He ended up being very happy with the Safari cake. (There's always next year for fish :)

On Saturday lots of Mikey's cousins and one of his good friends came for the party. The weather cooperated beautifully and we all had so much fun.

Here is the final cake. It was all I could do to stop Mikey from either adding even more animals or trying to make the alligator actually swim in the river.

Getting ready to blow out candles!

Mikey and Kate

And of course there was no shortage of helpers when it came to opening presents

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and presents and all the fun. It was a great celebration. (Mikey cried a few days later when I broke it to him that his birthday was now a year away.)

EASTER

A few days before Easter we did an Easter egg hunt at the park with some kids from the neighborhood. It was a little colder outside than I would have liked, but it could have been snowing and Mikey would have loved it just the same. After all the hunting, Mikey and Boston wanted to make sure none of the eggs had fallen into the river or anything.

Mikey contemplating the true meaning of Easter...or maybe just how to get that egg open.

EASTER MORNING

And here are just a few from Easter morning. Mikey loved it, Luke didn't notice anything was different. All in all, it was a good day. Happy Easter!

10 Months!

Okay, so if you're paying close attention, Luke was actually 10 months old almost a full month ago now (March 29th), but I'm obviously way behind. Now were this only for the viewing pleasure of others I would likely just start from here and continue forward, but since I consider this a journal-type thing for posterity purposes, forgive me for catching up when needed.


Well Luke continues to be the cutest thing in the house (as Mikey gets quite upset if you call him "cute." Warning to all, per Mikey, Mikey must be called "big," while Luke is to be called "cute.") The day after I posted Luke's 9 month entry, I was fishing something out of his mouth during church and discovered a little (razor sharp) tooth--front bottom right. I had no idea! (He had been sick the week before so it probably masked some of those signs.) He quickly got that second bottom, and then the top right followed shortly after that. So he's a three-toothed little biter, but still just so cute.
I really can't adequately explain how much Luke loves dad. When dad comes home he is literally bouncing of the ground (it's really something to see him "jump" while sitting flat on his bum as in the picture above.) It's just another reason why I love it when Lance comes home--seeing Luke's reaction.

He continues to work on his eating and drinking skills. He doesn't really get a ton of liquid out of a sippy on his own, but he loves to hold it by himself and he's getting better.

His crawling the two stairs to the kitchen quickly turned into more. The first time I found him, it had been quiet for a little too long so I ran around the corner to see this....

He is FAST now and he does a great job, but I never stop worrying because it's hard wood floor at the bottom of these stairs and I just keep imagining him falling all the way down! We didn't have stairs when Mikey was in this stage so this is new to me. He really is great at it, though. We love, love, love Luke!